Celebrating a birthday can be loads of fun, unless you’re charged with preparing all the food for the party guests. Coordinating food for a crowd can be a tough task. Knowing how much to prepare and making sure that it is all presented and ready to go in the right order, at the right time, can be challenging. Fortunately, the foods you serve don’t need to be complex. If you keep things simple and serve easy birthday party foods, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy the celebration.
Appetizers
When considering easy appetizers for your birthday party, easy-to-eat options are your best bet. A variety of cheeses served with an assortment of crackers, a fresh fruit tray, a raw veggie platter with a bowl of dip, and chips and dip are all easy to prepare and easy to eat appetizer choices. You may also wish to purchase frozen appetizers, like mini quiches, scallops wrapped in bacon and bruschetta, to serve. Open the package, pop them in the oven as directed and serve on a decorative serving platter.
Easy Main Courses
Most anything that can be prepared in a slow cooker makes for a great easy main course. Everything from meatballs in sauce to pot roast can be fixed and forgotten about until it is done. Pizza also makes a great main course for informal birthday parties. Order one pizza for every three people and order pizzas with a variety of toppings. Baked ziti or lasagna is another easy option. Both can be bought frozen or made ahead and cooked just prior to the party. A sandwich station complete with deli trays, chicken salad, rolls, pasta salad, green salad, chips, pickles and condiments is another easy option. If you don’t have time to prepare the fixings for the station, you can order almost everything already prepared from your local grocery store.
Desserts
The highlight of nearly any birthday party is the cake. While you can make or order a birthday cake, cupcakes can be an easy alternative. If you wish to serve a variety of deserts, consider serving mini pastries that can be purchased from your local bakery. If you wish to serve ice cream, considers serving individual cups of ice cream or ice cream novelty treats so that you aren’t stuck scooping out loads of ice cream. If you do decide to scoop, set up an ice cream station with a variety of toppings so everyone can create his own sundae.
Party Drinks
Cans of soda and individual bottles of spring water and juice are the easiest drinks to serve at birthday parties. If you’ll be serving alcohol, bottles and cans of beer and individual bottles of wine are the easiest options. If you want to serve mixed drinks, make up a pitcher of the drink at a time, add ice and allow people to serve themselves.
Considerations
Serving easy party foods doesn’t make any sense if you are going to have tons of clean up to do. When planning your party, purchase paper or plastic plates and bowls, napkins and plastic silverware. You can even purchase disposable plastic ware that looks like china, if your party is more formal. Straws, trash barrels and buckets filled with ice to hold drinks are other essentials you’ll need for your party.
Photo Credit
- birthday celebration image by Liz Van Steenburgh from Fotolia.com
